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Thursday, January 26, 2012

A Nail Tale

Have you seen these images from the Daphne Groeneveld for Jill Stuart Spring 2012 Campaign by Mario Sorrenti?

I'm not usually someone who thinks of themselves as a pastel lover but I think my longing for spring and warmer temperatures is winning out. The colors from these photos make me so happy and light hearted that not even a grey sky spewing hail at me right now can get me down.

Since pastels aren't something I look particularly fantastic in I wondered if I could try it in baby steps with my nails.

I ran out and got Rimmel London's Lycra Pro Professional Finish in Peppermint. It advertises:

~ Long Lasting
~ No chip
~ Anti-Fade

I'm such a scaredy cat of pastels I kept it to one nail and paired it with Sinful Colors Green and a cheap and cheerful Top Coat from Primark (good ol' Primark).

Pro's:
~ It's not faded in 24 hours of heavy hand usage. I love to work with my hands which is why I can't keep my nails long. To be able to hang in there after all that hand and dish washing is impressive.

~No chips! I'm in shock here. I'm usually muttering under my breath less than an hour after having my nails done at a nail salon. To have something I did with my daughter last this long is shocking and fantastic!

~Reasonable drying time. Usually I feel like I have to wait at least a good solid hour before resuming any kind of activity with my hands. Otherwise I end up with all kinds of impressions, bubbles, and creases. This dried fairly quickly and I amazingly didn't have any weirdness going on with them.

Con's:~I'm hard pressed for a con to be honest. The only one I can come up with is that I felt to get a truly opaque look with it, I needed three coats. Otherwise I risked having some transparent streaks in it. That's not too major a complaint over all though.

Summary:
If you're looking for a good affordable pastel, this could totally fit the bill. They had another shade I was really tempted to splurge on, Ultra Violet, but I must exercise self-discipline. I only have so many nails I can paint at one time...wait a minute - I could always paint each one a different colour. Oh no. Someone save me from myself!

(This is not a sponsored post. Just had some fun with my nails and thought others would like to know what I found! ;) xoxo)

(P.S. If anyone knows any environmentally friendly non-toxic polishes or other beauty products, I'd love to hear about them!)

{Jill Stuart images originally from here but the collage and color samples, I created}

I'm... as a good ladylike style lover... also a pastel colors lover! And it is pretty to get an outift with pastel color block! Ok, come to Brazil and you'll get inspiring to wear a colorful outfit! hahahahahahha I have a challenge to you: one month trying other pastel colors polish nail!!! Today I'm using the lavender color! It's so pretty!

I've been a pastel girl for years! Great to see them in style again! I like them on my nails, my lips, my body, my feet...Pastels, I love you! Also love the color on ur nails. I have a very similar one. My nail polishes are usually by a Portuguese brand called Andreia or by a Brazilian brand called Risqué but the other day I tried a nail polish from Catrice Cosmetics that you can buy at Penneys (Primark). They have lovely colors and I've had it on my feet for two weeks without a chip. Sorry I can't help you with non-toxic polishes...Oh, i do know know a brand that is non-toxic. It's Sejaa by Gisele Bündchen http://www.sejaa.com/. I believe The Body Shop and Lush are also very environmental friendly.

Ohhh thank you Diana! I will have to poke around sejaa and the body shop and lush. I'm half tempted to do an update to this post. It's been 48 hours and I still have no chips or fading to these nails. I'm astonished. I have really hit my nails hard a few times since I've done them. Car doors, seat belts, kitchen drawers, (I'm a bit of a clutz apparently) and yet they haven't marked anything up with color or anything. I'm astounded. I never have this good a luck with a nail polish staying put.

You have such amazing skin Cri, I think you can wear anything. I can easily imagine you wearing pastels. I've SEEN you do it on your blog. You make it look so chic and effortless. I have no idea why it never looks right on me. I guess I just haven't found the right shade or something.

I'm really loving the idea of pairing these pastels with darker colors. Maybe in graphic designs on the nails. I seem to be getting infected with a love for nail art lately. It's definitely a departure from my normal nail history but that's what makes it so fun to explore!

Thank you! If you try any of the pastel polishes let me know which ones. I'm so curious about them. I have such a dark wardrobe I think this might be a great way to splash some color into my ensembles.

I am also, for some odd reason, really drawn to pastels right now. I don't actually own a lot of pastels, but now I want my whole closet to be filled with them. For serious. I love the nail polish you've chosen! It's minty fun :)

I hate to tell you... I bought an "Avon" color in that light robin's egg blue/peppermint color you have on your ring finger and do you know why I bought it?? To paint the screws on a little birdie towel hanger I put up! The screws were showing up silver and it looked funny, so I painted over them with that color that matched the bird hook thing. How's that for using nailpolish for a different purpose??? But I DO like it on your nails!!Best,Gloria

I hate to tell you... I bought an "Avon" color in that light robin's egg blue/peppermint color you have on your ring finger and do you know why I bought it?? To paint the screws on a little birdie towel hanger I put up! The screws were showing up silver and it looked funny, so I painted over them with that color that matched the bird hook thing. How's that for using nailpolish for a different purpose??? But I DO like it on your nails!!Best,Gloria

Ha! That's hilarious. It's great when we think out of the box and find solutions like that. Did you put anything on top of it to help it stay in place with all the moisture? I have to admit, my daughter and I painted my nails on Thursday and it is STILL chip and fade free on Sunday morning. I have been down right abusive to my hands. I thought for sure the jig was up yesterday as I was cleaning out a utility cupboard. I scraped my nails across something on accident. Whatever it was left a streak of white across the top of the nail. That white stuff wiped right off and left no sign. I have no idea what is in this stuff but I'm astounded. I never have polish last this long.

This is probably just in my warped brain but it was like a candified Barbie look which for some reason, I totally loved. I could never pull it off but I love looking at it and seeing how I can incorporate some of the elements from it for myself.

I think these pastels might become a serious problem for me. I am seriously considering going out and buying all the available shades I can find with the same tone, and wearing one on each nail at this point. They're so pretty and happy!